It’s the end of the month! That means that rent is due, Patreon payments go through, and another Hearthstone season turns over!

I’m a super casual Hearthstone player. At the end of the month I rush to get just the number of wins needed to get me to rank 20 and get the card back for the month. I probably won’t even use the card back, but the completist in me HAS TO HAVE IT. It’s one of those terrible urges I feel kind of guilty about, but it gets me to play Hearthstone, which I like, so it all works out. Sometimes I skip a month if I got my rank up high enough that the next season I’m already at 20 or higher. I don’t want to skip a month, but I get busy, the end of the month rolls around, I remember that I’ll get my card back anyway, and I put off playing.

I’ve only played Arena once. I really like it, but I can tell I need to put a little more thought and research into it before I play again, and that doesn’t always float to the top of my priority list.

And the Curse of Naxxramas! I really enjoyed playing all of that. I especially enjoyed figuring out how to beat a couple of the heroic bosses without looking up decks online. I ran into a problem with that though. One of the only times I have to play is at night before bed. But being stuck on a puzzle like a Hearthstone heroic boss (and remember – NO LOOKING UP DECKS!), would keep me awake all night. Not playing, just thinking about it. So I’ll have to remember to play on weekend mornings instead.

Do you play Hearthstone? How do you play it? What are you playing lately?

I played Betrayal at House on the Hill for the first time with my boyfriend and another couple. It’s a fun spooky story game, which seems to be a Thing right now.

The four of us entered a spooky house, which we progressively built by laying room tiles. We explored the house, gathering items and hopefully getting stronger, but often ended up encountering baddies and getting weaker. After a few rounds, we inevitably discovered what the game is ultimately about: the Haunt.

There are many Haunts you can discover, and you wouldn’t want to play the same one twice, as they’re spoiler sensitive. The Haunt is basically a story with its own unique goals and win conditions. Our Haunt, and perhaps all of them, established one player as a traitor. It was me! I won’t go into the details in case you play it, but I can safely tell you that I had my own win condition, and so did my now opponents. I could fairly safely assume that they were somehow trying to stop me from accomplishing my new mission.

It was fun, but like many games, I think it’d be stronger a second time – as long as I don’t play the second round so far in the future that I forget all the rules I learned. So many rules! When I became the traitor, I was a little overwhelmed with all the things I had to do, and I couldn’t consult anyone about it, since I had to keep it all secret. I almost got something really important wrong. Fortunately I figured it out, but it delayed the game slightly.

I should really watch the two TableTopepisodes about the game! It probably would have made it a little easier.

My Mom told me about Monument Valley a couple of months ago, and I downloaded it to my iPad mini where it sat neglected – until recently. When I finally picked it up, I was blown away by its elegant design and beautiful, engrossing world. While not nearly as hard, its revolving world mechanic hints of Fez, and its optical illusions conjure M.C. Escher illustrations.

I usually prefer my puzzle games to be harder than Monument Valley, but this was more of a beautiful experience with some light brain strain than a straight up puzzler. It’s on Android as well as iOS.

I’ve heard from 2 different people that when a new comic is posted, the navigation under the previous comic doesn’t link to the new one. It’s greyed out, like this:

I’m not having this problem on any of the computers or browsers I use, so I can’t really troubleshoot. Is this happening to any of you? If it is, verify that you refreshed your browser. I’m just trying to get a handle on how big of a problem this is. And if anyone has any ideas on what the problem might be, please let me know!